“We will begin to sunset Universal Analytics in 2023”.
If you have a website connected to an Analytics account, then chances are you’ve already received an email with this title.
Google Analytics is a reporting tool used by millions of businesses worldwide to make decisions based on user interaction across their web domains, mobile apps, and offline APIs. Most businesses use the platform to track web traffic, measure KPIs, ROAS and monitor marketing channels. Now, with the new Google Analytics 4, Google is offering a version that differs from the “traditional” Universal Analytics.
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the formerly known App + Web property that will replace Universal Analytics from July 1st 2023. Although it still doesn’t please many digital experts, Google affirms that it has several advantages over its predecessor.
Other than its interface, the core difference between Universal Analytics and GA4 is that any interaction, from a page view to a lead or a purchase, is tracked as an event in GA4. In other words, the traditional Universal Analytics properties are based on ‘hit types’, while GA4 focuses primarily on ‘events’.
Another difference comes in tracking users instead of specific pages. While Universal Analytics offers detailed information about landing page performance, GA4 will display an overall view of the user’s engagement with the pages.
As stated in Google’s announcement, the main advantages of Google Analytics 4 are:
- Privacy-focused and durable for the future.
- Intelligent. Using machine learning to unearth insights about the customer journey across platforms and devices.
- Enhanced and seamless integrations with Google’s advertising platforms to optimise campaign performance and drive greater marketing ROI.
When should I migrate to GA4?
All standard Universal Analytics properties will stop processing new hits on the 1st of July 2023. If you haven’t set up your GA4 properties yet, now is the time. Even though we have well over a year, configuring GA4 now will enable it to start tracking the metrics you care about so that historical data is there when you need to reference it.
Make the move over to Google Analytics 4 as soon as possible to build the necessary historical data before Universal Analytics stops processing new hits. Contact our team of helpful, intelligent creatives today to migrate your analytics to GA4!